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90% reduction of energy consumption seen in light commercial building...

Mark Eatherton
Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
in THE MAIN WALL
I had breakfast yesterday with three of my industry peers. We are putting a design collaboration team together to address light commercial buildings (less than 200K sq. ft). We will be using students from Red Rocks Community College's Commercial Building Energy Conservation program.



Two of the team members teach at RRCC and their first project was a library built in the late 60's to early 70's. The building has been converted to a place called The Learning Source, a non profit organization dedicated to helping people get their GED's.



The building was terribly uncomfortable and the utility bills WAY out of line for the foot print and use.



The students went in first and performed an energy audit, utility bill review and generated a recommendations report. The school had received bids from local contractors to replace the physical plant for $165K, with NO guarantee as to any potential energy savings. In fact, they thought the buildings energy consumption might increase.



The organization looked over the students recommendations, and decided to implement the students recommendations over the HVAC contractors recommendations. The building has seen reductions in energy consumption totaling 90%!



Let that sink into your heads for a while, and while its rattling around, tell me what you think the students recommendations were, and what was done to realize these kinds of energy savings...



90%... And not all suggestions have been implemented yet...



What do you think they did Wallies?



ME

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Comments

  • Steamhead
    Steamhead Member Posts: 17,387
    I'll bite

    Replaced forced-air with hydronics? 
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    Towson, MD, USA
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Consulting
  • Paul Rohrs_14
    Paul Rohrs_14 Member Posts: 80
    90%

    My guess is they replaced windows and doors, insulated, tightened up the envelope, and added hydronics, maybe in the form of Geo.
  • MikeyB
    MikeyB Member Posts: 696
    Energy savings

    Hey ME, pretty impressive savings, myself and my crew operate/maintain a 230K sq ft Commericial building and some of the upgrades/improvemnts that have been made over the last 3.5  years since i have been here have been replacement of some 90 + steam traps (high pressure & low pressure) some original since 1955, lighting upgrades to the builing core areas, replacement of low flow aerators, atuomatic Flushometers, insulation, damper replcements (still on going) install of  High Eff motors. Just to name a few, but you can pretty quickly see savings on just our annual Steam consumption after replacing our steam traps. So im thinking that they recommened new windows, or tinting of windows, steam trap replacement/repair, (if they have steam) energy eff light bulbs, auto light sensors, insulating, possibly Solar or Geo?
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    Nope...

    Great guess, but the existing system has a boiler as it's heat source, with a large FCU serving the building ventilation needs, and base board convectors in remote office/areas.



    ME

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  • James Day_2
    James Day_2 Member Posts: 191
    Biomass

    Some sort of biomass fuel. Pellets corn wood something of that sort
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    Close Paul...

    Solar DHW will be implemented in the near future.



    It is still burning dead dinosaurs right now...



    ME

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  • bob_46
    bob_46 Member Posts: 813
    Biomass

    Since we are talking about biomass in Colorado the home of "medical marijuana"

    (wink wink nudge nudge) I suspect they are recovering the waste heat from the grow

    lights. I would guess an operation like this would be way more than 100% efficient.

    The revenue stream from the "medicine" would be much greater than energy costs.

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  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    Biomass may be implemented in the future...

    There are plans to build a year around garden/green house to provide food for the homeless shelters in the metropolitan area, and one of my thoughts was that they could do a woody biomass heating system in the growing beds to implement production. But at present, they're on (NG) fossil fuel. Heck, they could burn pallets from local facilities, and lessen the load on the land fills. Or accept tree's and bush cuttings, and more.



    Its fun thinking out of the box, ain't it:-)



    ME

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  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    Actually Bob...

    I think Californication Nation beat us to the punch on legalization. If there were to burn the stocks and stems, they'd have to have guards to keep the hippies from Boulder from squatting on the land.....



    But not a bad idea. I have some associates who are in the "growing" biz. I should ask them what they do with the shake. Maybe they could make hemp based thread sealants. Adds new meaning to the words Pipe Dope don't it :-)



    ME

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  • MikeyB
    MikeyB Member Posts: 696
    Savings

    VFD on the FCU, and on the Pumps for the baseboard, maybe ODR for the baseboard heat as well?
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    Got parts of it right Mikey...

    A VFD is involved, but only on the air side, not the hydronics (yet).



    ME

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  • bill_105
    bill_105 Member Posts: 429
    The question...

    is inviting to every obvious improvement; high tech. this and high tech. that. I bet it's real simple.

     Baseboard in offices and remote areas, Hmm, Did they just minimize air movement and add a bunch of radiant stuff.  Or is that too simple?

    I remember Red Rocks, saw the Moody Blues.
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,858
    The Wrap Up on this project...

    First, thanks to everyone for their comments. Keep them coming even after you find out what took place.



    The students recommended that the whole building be completely wrapped in a 4" thick XPS foam wrap. Including the roof. The existing structure was a triple thick brick wall with no insulation to speak of. Typical institutional building from the 60's and 70's. They used an EFIS system to accomplish this feat.



    They also recommended the use of Solar Tube sky lighting, and replacement of ancient flourescent lighting technology.



    They replaced the cooling coil and associated cooling package with a high efficiency system, and replaced the blower motor with a VFD compatible motor, along with the VFD.



    They recommended the installation of a DDC control system, and put in CO2 sensors to vary the amount of outside air being drawn in based on actual occupancy. If the building is empty, all systems are shut down, and minimum critical temperatures are maintained.



    They set up an outdoor reset schedule for heating and cooling loads, thereby reducing and eliminating any standby losses.



    When they first arrived, the boiler was kept hot 24/7/365 regardless of the loads. The OSA was pulling 50% OSA 24/7/365. Lights were turned off thru H.I.D.'s (Human Interface Devices, also known as light switches) and are now controlled based on the availability of free ambient light from the Solar Tubes.



    This whole program cost them $10,000 more than they would have paid for their NEW HVAC system, but had a significantly higher impact on energy consumption, and the environment from re-using duct work versus ripping out the old, and replacing with new.



    Now, the long term impacts of adding solar PV (done) as well as Solar DHWPH, and possibly an Air Source Heat pump, or high efficiency gas fired boiler have yet to be realized. Thanks to WILO and Steve Thompson for offering up a variable speed circulator(s) to help make it even more efficient.



    The organization actually took out a conventional loan, and proved that the economics are there. The net savings in energy costs more than pays the monthly ticket on the loan, and once it is paid for, the organization will realize 100% of the dollar savings potentials.



    The students from RRCC's Solar Thermal class are slated to perform the actual SDHW installation.



    3 of the 8 students who worked on this project started their own business doing exactly this kind of service (Energy Coach) and are quite successful in their efforts.



    I am fortunate to have been asked to get involved with the group that put this all together, and we are going to start our own consulting group (one main player, the rest as sub contractors to remain independent). I came up with the moniker of EDICT, which stands for Efficiency Design and Implementation Collaboration Team. The goal is to turn these buildings into net zero, or net plus buildings, and this group has proven that it can be done. It just takes some serious commitments on the building owners part, and the design team. It is a win/win/win proposition for all involved.





    Thanks for playing along. Comments, as always are welcome.



    PS, The 1960's boiler is still there if someone wants to replace it with a high efficiency mod con :-)



    ME

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  • MikeyB
    MikeyB Member Posts: 696
    Savings

    Great story Mark, thanks for sharing, keep us updated
This discussion has been closed.

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